MFCO314 French Cinema

If we believe many of the directors of French new wave cinema (from roughly 1959-64),
then we might be mistaken for thinking that they single-handedly pulled France out
of its post-war depression and proved that it could, again, compete on the world stage
as a modern nation. Such was the 'myth' of the French new wave.

In this paper
we focus tightly upon the five years in which Varda, Truffaut, Godard and Resnais
burst upon the scene. We examine the claims they made: that jumpcuts and hand-held
camerawork, Parisian streets and existential angst could innovate, rejuvenate and
generally change Paris - France - the world! In so doing we consider how innovation
and change happen on screen and the extraordinary capacity that cinema has for communicating
within and across national boundaries.